Al Qaeda-Somalia Link Broken
It sounded sinister at first. The Pentagon announced new evidence of a possible link between the al Qaeda terrorist network and Somalia. Within minutes the story began to unravel.
The Pentagon's military spokesman for the war in Afghanistan, Brig. Gen. John Rosa of the Air Force, announced Wednesday that U.S. soldiers searching abandoned al Qaeda caves in eastern Afghanistan had recovered a hand-held navigation device Monday with the name "G. Gordon" on it.
Rosa said the Pentagon believed it once belonged to Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon, an Army Ranger killed in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in October 1993.
"There's a couple of conclusions you may draw," Rosa said when asked the significance of the discovery. "In fact this piece we currently think originated from Somalia will obviously tie - could obviously tie - al Qaeda to Somalia."
An alternative explanation, he said, was that the device might have been stolen and sold on the black market. If that were the case, he said, "We don't know how it would have gotten" to the al Qaeda cave.
The actual explanation, officials said later: It belonged to a U.S. soldier who fought against the al Qaeda at the outset of Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S. ground offensive of the war in Afghanistan. The device and its pouch both had "G. Gordon" written on them because the soldier - a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment - uses that as his nickname because people say he resembles G. Gordon Liddy, the Watergate figure.
The whole episode had nothing to do with Gary I. Gordon or Somalia or an al Qaeda link to Somalia.
An Army Times newspaper reporter, Sean Naylor, was with the U.S. soldiers who recovered the GPS device on Monday. Naylor recorded the model and serial number. His newspaper checked that information with the manufacturer, Garmin International, which said the model, GPS III Pilot, was made no earlier than 1997 and the item was sold on Dec. 21, 1998 to Fort Campbell, the Army post in Kentucky that is home to the 101st Airborne Division, the 5th Special Forces Group and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the "Nightstalkers."
"That product didn't exist in 1993," Garmin spokesman Pete Brumbaugh said in a telephone interview.
The Army Times' managing editor, Robert Hodierne, said Naylor reported that the soldiers who found the GPS unit also found two others at the same location. Two of the three had names on them. One was "G. Gordon." The other was "Svitak." Army Sgt. Philip J. Svitak was among seven U.S. servicemen killed March 4 when hostile fire brought down one Chinook MH-47 helicopter and damaged another. Svitak was a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment from Fort Campbell.
It was not clear Monday whether the actual owner of the "G. Gordon" GSP device also was killed.
Before making its announcement Wednesday, the Pentagon notified Gary I. Gordon's family of the GPS discovery. Gordon, a native of Lincoln, Maine, was a sniper team leader when he was killed in a Mogadishu firefight Oct. 3, 1993. He and Sgt. 1st Class Randall D. Shughart were awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism.
Victoria Clarke, spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was asked by a reporter whether Gordon's family was contacted as a humanitarian gesture.
"The first thing I think all of us said when we first heard about this was, 'Wow, this is going to bring up some very sad memories for the family,'" she replied. "And the first thing I heard several people say when they heard was, 'Before anything, let's make sure we notify the next of kin.'"